10: Wait, what?

Becoming ever less noticeable, ever more deadly, ever more judgmental. Seeking insight into the crimes of the worlds denizens and seizing their lives and power. I’ve stopped taking breaks. This world has too many terrible people in it. I will cleanse this world. I shall be the silent reaper, sending sinners to hell. 

…

This isn’t enough. One of me isn’t enough. I don’t want to just be a wanderer slaying those who cause trouble wherever I am. The whole point of cultivation is to gain power. The whole point of power is to do what we want. What I want is to change things. Change everything! I must find a way to do more. Be more. 

…

We found a way to split ourselves. With more of us, we can cover more territory. We can gather power and slay sinners even faster. We can use that power to multiply and cover even more territory. We shall change the world!

…

It’s been so long since any of us have slept. Or even rested. It gets difficult to think of anything other than continuing the task we chose for us. Perhaps… perhaps it’s better that we don’t think. People are starting to notice what we do. We are not yet strong enough to kill all who deserve to die. To hide ourselves is tricky. A few have been found and slain. We need to be even less real. Less here. Less… alive. I need to become a new law of the land, so that no one can escape me.

… 

Follower’s view

I’ve lost her completely, she’s getting too fast. It also seems she’s becoming more selective. There’s survivors who aren’t prisoners now. They usually panic and plea for forgiveness. Every time they claim to have only recently joined and not done anything yet. This is their chance to return to the right path. I shall help guide them.

…

Head of Soothing Wind Sect’s view

Why can’t I find them? Even my scouts have begun to die, and there’s no sign of who or how. Something’s gone wrong. Very wrong. I can’t escape this growing sense of foreboding and fear. The last time something like this began to happen, the world itself seemed to turn against the one responsible, making it impossible for them to remain hidden. The amount of death and destruction revealed their location, no matter how good they were at hiding. This time though, it’s bandits and assassins. Ordinary people are spared. Do I need to train scouts that have never killed? How can I be sure they are trustworthy?

…

God’s view

Um… I know I asked her to be my god of destruction, but I wasn’t expecting her to become a force of nature. Trying to create a new path of cultivation without guidance is dangerous. Doing so as recklessly as she did is even more so. She didn’t really fail though, even if her path has destroyed her ego. *sigh* I did get what I wanted though. She’s transformed into a new force of nature. One that drains the power and life of those who kill. This is a much bigger change than I was expecting. She’s basically become an apocalypse. 

…

Head of Soothing Wind Sect’s view

Everyone is dying. One by one, all over the world, cultivators are dying. This can’t be the work of a single individual, yet there’s no signs of an organization. Some speculate that it’s a giant spell. A spell that spans the whole world. Others claim it’s a curse. There’s a new religion among the mortals that claims a goddess has chosen to end the lives of sinners. Normally I’d call such claims ridiculous. No deity is powerful enough to do this. Yet… it’s happening. 

We’ve tried every type of barrier we can think of. The only ones that seem to work, are the ones that completely separate an area from the world itself. Such barriers are no good. There’s no energy from the world to sustain it, no energy from the world to cultivate with. Hiding in such a manner is at best, a temporary retreat. 

It has been noted among the young, that the ones who die have all killed. The few cultivators who have never killed are all untouched by this world-wide curse. It’s too late for me. I’ve killed so very many. Even now I have to rely upon protective artifacts to keep from having my ki drained. The barriers of our sect do nothing to stop it. My weaker students are already all dead. My stronger ones are struggling. I’m afraid my assassin’s guild shall be dead before long. I’ll continue working on finding a way to stop this new threat, but I see no real hope... Unless I can figure out how to assassinate the heavenly dao itself.

***Author Note***

This wasn’t the plan. Except while thinking on stuff I realized that having the main character make no mistakes was unlikely. Not only was she rather driven by her desire for revenge (and thus unlikely to notice her mistake, or care that her sanity was slipping) but the god who summoned her was unlikely to intervene, because the outcome was an acceptable one. 

It’s a bit funny. Becoming a part of the world itself was an outcome I’d originally planned for the main character of a different story, only to have that story not pan out that way, and they cultivated a more ordinary path and even created a sect of sorts. Meanwhile, this character whom I’d planned on having found a sect of their own, instead turned into a force of nature, becoming a part of the world itself.

Now I’m wondering what happens to a cultivation world where killing produces such bad results. Just how much is the world going to change? I’ll have to think on that for a while.